(Warning: Grab your hot drink of choice – this will be a very long one!)

Since the very first conversation we had during this game’s genesis, we’ve intended to be fully transparent with Project Rap Rabbit. From the get-go, we’ve set out to create a focused, hyper-polished game and to offer a completely open, honest and transparent Kickstarter campaign. It’s with that philosophy in mind that we chose to make some bold decisions with our Kickstarter launch.

We didn’t want to sugar-coat funding targets by presenting costs that wouldn’t cover the rest of Project Rap Rabbit’s development: although our expectations were that an artificially lowered project goal would likely generate a higher total funding level, we weren’t prepared to risk a situation where we weren’t able to fully cover the development costs necessary to ensure Project Rap Rabbit lived up to our promise. Project Rap Rabbit represents our vision for the future of rhythm-action – we would rather aim high and learn that not enough people shared our vision than trickle past a false goal, try to make the game without the true funds needed and end up compromising Project Rap Rabbit’s quality.

Similarly, we did not want to mask our Stretch Goal plan. We understand this goes against all common Kickstarter wisdom, but we felt it was vitally important to lay out our full plans for Project Rap Rabbit to highlight our ambition, and the true costs we’d need to secure to enable development. The last thing we wanted to do is hint at any additional formats or features, suggesting they would be small steps and then disappoint people with targets higher than they might have been accustomed to from other crowd-funding projects. We are not in the position of being co-funded by a secret fourth party: Project Rap Rabbit’s funds are coming purely from NanaOn-Sha, iNiS J, PQube and Kickstarter, and we therefore presented the full amounts necessary to develop certain features to their fullest.

Those costs were all based on several factors: development budgets, accounting for our studios’ expertise with the hardware and the tools involved, platform audience numbers (with which we run retail simulations to calculate projected sales come launch – at which point we need to be targeting a profit) and, finally, our intent to secure both pricing and release date parity across all console formats.

With these elements considered, we began forming the skeleton of our Stretch Goals. It made sense for us to zero in on the platforms we knew we could develop for without any unknown quantities arising, and to then present a plan whereby those communities would get a bigger game with more modes if Stretch Goals were met. Once we had that bumper experience in place, we ultimately wanted to give ourselves the breathing room to bring it all, wholesale, to Nintendo Switch.

This order was especially attractive because with every additional mode triggered through Stretch Goals, budget and resources would need to be weighted towards the Nintendo Switch version to fully optimize the new features: the multiplayer mode especially would require a lot of retooling. By pulling development for Switch forward, we ran the risk of needing to push multiplayer further back on all formats to account for these bespoke resources, thus pushing Project Rap Rabbit’s fullest feature set further away.

Seeing your overwhelming demand for Project Rap Rabbit on Nintendo Switch, we can hold our hands up and say that we got our ordering wrong. As a result, we have replanned our resources to offer a Nintendo Switch version of our game as the first Project Rap Rabbit Stretch Goal.

First and foremost, there is no change to our initial game’s core funding plan. Our core target of $1.1 million to bring Project Rap Rabbit to PS4 and PC remains the same to fully preserve the sanctity of Project Rap Rabbit. The only differences come into play as we enter Stretch Goals.

Our original Nintendo Switch target was the cumulative total of development of all features across all platforms, with the additional cost of porting on top. Restructuring all our targets enabled us to recalculate the porting costs and internal resources needed to bring Project Rap Rabbit to Nintendo Switch for $1.5 million.

That leaves us with three final points to address.

Firstly: What happens to the other Stretch Goals?

These objectives are still hugely important to us. When we begin to approach the point at which our Nintendo Switch edition is due to be funded, we will be reaching out to our community via surveys to see which of our Stretch Goals you want to see next. We want to know what you want as the next step in the Project Rap Rabbit campaign – an Xbox One version, more levels, extra modes or difficulties – and shape future Stretch Goals accordingly.

Secondly: A free digital soundtrack!

As a thank you to all our backers so far, every tier from White-Label Edition (Digital) and above will also now receive a free digital copy of the official soundtrack.

Thirdly: A new early-bird tier!

Effective immediately, we are introducing a new early-bird tier that will be available for the entire Kickstarter campaign: The Bootleg Digital Edition priced at £20/approx: $25/€24/¥2,950, which contains a digital copy of the game on any format.

We’ll be contacting all current White-Label Edition (Digital) backers direct to make them aware of this change.

Provided we meet our Nintendo Switch Stretch Goal, all tiers containing a copy of Project Rap Rabbit will be free to select the game on any format, with no price differences between formats.

Thank you for reading our essay and for your continued enthusiasm for Project Rap Rabbit! Please help us share the news and help us make the next evolution of rhythm-action!

Don't you think it's disingenuous to rebuke others and say it's about what the majority want when, statistically speaking, Switch owners should be in the minority of those backing Rap Rabbit? I think that's a mistake in the campaign—there are simply objectively far fewer Switch owners than those that have a PS4 or X1. Chalk it up to a fervent and vocal fanbase, but make no mistake that they are in no way the majority.

Though I do agree, people, that anyone unhappy with the direction of the stretch goals should keep their pledge in. Just two days after launch the project has completely wiped the slate on its stretch goals and made what was previously a goal at the end of the rainbow the very next item on the agenda after successful funding. It's clear that they're going to be flexible with this campaign, so anyone who wants things done differently should stick around to give feedback! You're not on the hook for anything until the campaign ends, so at least keep a buck in it so you can try to get the game how you want it!

I'm going to repeat what I said in the last update: I'm not happy about the goals being shuffled to favor a port to a nascent console over more content for the game. While I HUGELY appreciate and respect the realistic and honest approach to the asking prices for funding, it does make the game harder to sell to many people, and because of that I'd so much rather have the first order of business if the game is funded be to make it *even better*. I just don't think this is the right move, and I don't think Switch fans number large enough nor have enough interest in Rap Rabbit's genre or history to make this change worth it.

I was dissatisfied with the structure of the stretch goals to begin with, entangling disparate goals like bonus content and modes with ports and localizations, but at least they were loosely focused on improving the quality first and spreading it around second. I doubt my comment or the few others from people who feel the same will manage to avoid being drowned out by the incredibly vocal Switch fanbase, but I have to say it anyway.

On the plus side, I like the idea of having fans decide what future stretch goals will be prioritized, so good on you guys. Love the way you're running the campaign (even if I don't agree with the results) and I hope Rap Rabbit achieves the success it deserves!

@azuritereaction - Oh please, entitlement? This is Kickstarter, a place where people give developers their money, and most expect something in return. In the ideal world I'd really love to see this game made no matter what, but the harsh reality is my resources are very limited, and I'm already stretching myself thin. Funding a project with only a faint hope that one day, in undisclosed future, I *maybe* might be finally able to play it (of course, in your proposed scenario I would have to pay for it again) is just not a realistic option.

If getting over the initial finishing line is such a priority, then I'd say it would make the most sense to make additional platforms the first stretch goals, and let people know what they are as soon as possible. That way you cast the widest net possible and immediately attract more people to the project. I mean, surely there are more people who would back this if their platform of choice was supported (mind you, it's often the only platform they have access to), than there are those thinking "gee, I really like this, but if only there was one more level..."

To put it in other terms, is it better to make more people happy or to make fewer already happy people slightly happier? Once those goals are met, then we can all work together toward those additional goodies.

@Shaun - if backer-exclusive content is a Stretch Goal the community wants and is that achieved, Bootleg Edition tiers would get that content. (The Bootleg Edition contains the full game.) That being said, we also know that backer-only content wasn't a Stretch Goal many people were keen on, and we're going to be letting our community decide future Stretch Goals...

Seriously, the developers need to go with what the majority of people want. They can't magically add in all the features you want and ports and do it all without much funding.

You complain about not getting the game on your favorite console, but then you UNFUND them? If people keep backing out of it, not only will you not get your port, you won't even have a game at all.

If you want the game on the Xbox or switch or whatever else, then stay funded at least for now, because it could be your pledge that pushes it over into the stretch goal or even sees the game completed at all.

Once the game comes out as well, and developers, feel free to correct me on this, but I'm pretty sure sales of the game would make it possible to do a port to any consoles you didn't get to with stretch goals a little while after the initial release, right?

But to all of you saying you're going to back out, if the game itself doesn't get funded, that won't even be a possibility.

While I have nothing against people who want the game on Switch or any other platform, Xbox One version now moving from "highly unlikely" to "we'll think about adding it at a later date" does not sit well with me at all. I'll wait until the next update, but if nothing changes till then, I'm out. If the Xbox One version is ever added and reaches a point where it has a realistic chance of being funded, I'll be back.

@Stephen G - We'll be addressing this very matter in one of our next updates, absolutely.

@Thomas HW - We're going to be listening to the community about future Stretch Goals. Our anticipation is that Xbox One will indeed be the next goal, but we want to speak to all our followers and backers about what they're most excited by. If the community decides that Xbox One is indeed the next Stretch Goal, then today's update and our reordered Stretch Goals will mean an Xbox One version should be easier to reach than before.